|
|
NORTH
S:
963
H:Q54 D:AJ1097 C:82 |
|
|
WEST
S:Q107
H:
J1092 D:
K5 C:
10953 |
|
EAST
S:
K542
H:
K76 D:
Q862 C:
76 |
|
|
SOUTH
S:AJ8
H: A83 D: 43 C: AKQJ4 |
|
Last
month, the Blewbury Bridge Club invited me to conduct a pre-season trial,
which involved me setting pre-prepared deals to test the bidding and playing
skills of the club members.None
of the deals were intended to be more than a test of basic technique.No
complicated coups or squeezes were included and “bread and butter” bridge
was the order of the day.Everybody
seemed to enjoy the occasion, myself included.
One
of the deals that gave the participants most difficulty was the one above,
which involved a fairly straightforward defensive problem.On
most tables, South opened with a bid of one club, North responded with
one diamond and South jumped to three no trumps, which became the final
contract.
The
jack of hearts was led, which was ducked in dummy and taken by South’s
ace.With eight tricks on topdeclarer’s
first attempt to generate the ninth trick should be to lead a low diamond,
with the hopeful intention of finessing the jack.When
the jack was played on West’s five, East at one table withheld the queen,
holding declarer to nine tricks.On
the remaining tables, where East took the first round of diamonds with
the queen, declarer made ten, eleven or twelve tricks, depending on East’s
return of lead.
West
was following the old whist/bridge maxim “second player plays low”.All
West needs to do to defeat the contract is to play the king on the first
round of diamonds.Whether declarer
ducks, or takes the trick with the ace, the lack of entries to dummy restricts
him to just one diamond trick and he is forced to go one down in his contract.
The
lesson learned from this deal is not to automatically accept every bridge
cliché without question.On
this particular occasion, “second player plays high” was the winning decision.
I
wish the Blewbury team well in the Wessex League during the coming season.
LOCAL
NEWSThe
Oxfordshire Summer League was won by the Abingdon/Wallingford Team of Debbie
Roberts, John Clifford, Sara Tulip and Peter Russell.Wessex
League Result:Abingdon
A 15 Bicester A 5.